WASHINGTON — The contractor responsible for renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool now blames its own repairs, not vandalism, for the issues that were seen there.
What they’re saying
According to the New York Times, the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, said that the pool’s new blue liner peeled and tore because of “human oversight.”
The Times reports that the company admitted to having a flawed plan that involved layering two incompatible chemicals, and an issue with how the heat reacted with the materials used to redo the liner.
How it all started
President Donald Trump first announced plans to resurface the pool and paint it “American flag blue” back in April.
“You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it’s supposed to be,” he said at the time of the announcement. “Much better than it ever was, actually.”
Trump said he called a pool contractor he knows from his work as a real estate developer for a quote to remove the pool’s current granite. The contractor offered to do it for $1.5 million.
In June, he touted the last step of the work on the pool, saying it would get a final coat of protection.
“It’ll last for 50 to 100 years before you have to do anything, very strong, powerful substance that we used,” Trump told reporters.
Signs of trouble
Beginning mid-June, bright green algae and floating pieces of blue sealant were drawing attention at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Earlier this summer, Trump blamed vandals for the damage to the pool, but at the time, researchers who spoke with WUSA9 said the darker color of the pool was likely absorbing more heat, creating warmer conditions that promoted algae growth and contributing to sealant peeling.
“The bottom is absorbing light, which heats it up,” Hans Paerl, an algae researcher with the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences, told WUSA9 in June. “Black would be the worst color, but dark blue is a pretty bad color, too, in terms of warming up the water. That just adds to the overall temperature and growth potential for these organisms.”
The charges
The U.S. Justice Department brought charges against a handful of people for allegedly vandalizing the Reflecting Pool following Trump’s allegations.
The most notable case was that of David Hearn.
The Bethesda man was accused of using his hands to forcibly rip out a section of the reflecting pool’s new blue sealant, allegedly causing more than $1,000 worth of damage to the Reflecting Pool.
But prosecutors’ filing showed the area that Hearn was accused of causing damage already had a liner peeling before he was in the area.
Even after U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro dropped Hearn’s case, the high-profile incident caused Trump to double down on his claims of vandalism. He said he disagreed, “100% with Jeanine Pirro.”
“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but major damage was caused by VANDALS!” Trump wrote in a social media post.
All of the charges against Hearn and other cases concerning vandalism at the Reflecting Pool have since been dropped.
